Looking through his office window at his new Mount Royal University job, Elder Roy Bear Chief envisioned a human spider web in one of the school’s soccer fields. Now, eight years later, the web is an annual happening in that exact spot.
Students from Mount Royal University (MRU) and Bishop Carroll High School made up the third-ever human spider web during the school’s annual Journey to Indigenization. The web is a living enactment of the Siksika creation story ani to pisi.
In the story, when the normally peaceful web begins to move or vibrate, the creator and other community members know to help the source of the vibration. The web is actualized by hundreds of MRU students and faculty standing in a web-like pattern and then waving their arms in the air section by section, symbolizing the vibration.
“Ani to psi explained to them that the web would remain with them, so that the Creator would know when to help them whenever there is trouble or an emergency,” Bear Chief said, when telling the story..
Dr. Stephen Price, Dean of the Faculty of Health, Community and Education, said the event takes around 30 volunteers and 500 students to complete and is a chance for non-indigenous people to connect with the roots and stories of the Treaty 7 territories.
“This is an opportunity for settlers like myself to be involved, hearing from the elders how the Creator, after making the world, gifted the spiderweb to the people, so that the vibrations, the interconnectivity, allows people to help and support each other,” he said.
“We’re doing this as part of Mount Royal’s journey to indigenization, as we approach the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it’s a chance for people to just get out, to learn to listen and to participate in community.”
Students, community members and faculty were able to register for event participation online.
“We just say to the students that we would love for you to come and be involved, we mentioned that we’re going to have several elders here, and the chance to learn from them and the students just respond to that,” Price said.
“They’ve chosen that they want to be here for that.”
Dr. Timothy Rahilly, President and first Vice-Chancellor of MRU, said that the web is part of larger efforts.
“Since 2021, we’ve been doing work for our Journey to Indigenization, and we’re so grateful that we could do this on our campus to show our commitment to indigenization and decolonization,” he said.
